Wise Words from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (July 1, 1646–November 14, 1716) was a German scientist, mathematician, and philosopher.

He developed core concepts of integral and differential calculus and was a pioneer in the realm of mechanical calculators. He is known as one of the founders of computer science.

As a philosopher, he was of the scholastic tradition, influenced contemporary analytic philosophy, and viewed our world as one of God’s perfect creations.

Below we list some words of wisdom from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

“I am convinced that the unwritten knowledge scattered among men of different callings surpasses in quantity and in importance anything we find in books, and that the greater part of our wealth has yet to be recorded.”

“The greatness of a life can only be estimated by the multitude of its actions. We should not count the years, it is our actions which constitute our life.”

“Nothing is more important than to see the sources of invention which are, in my opinion more interesting than the inventions themselves.”

“Reality cannot be found except in One single source, because of the interconnection of all things with one another.”

“I do not believe that a world without evil, preferable in order to ours, is possible; otherwise it would have been preferred. It is necessary to believe that the mixture of evil has produced the greatest possible good: otherwise the evil would not have been permitted. The combination of all the tendencies to the good has produced the best; but as there are goods that are incompatible together, this combination and this result can introduce the destruction of some good, and as a result some evil.”

“Nothing is accomplished all at once, and it is one of my great maxims, and one of the most completely verified, that Nature makes no leaps: a maxim which I have called the law of continuity.”

“God, possessing supreme and infinite wisdom, acts in the most perfect manner, not only metaphysically, but also morally speaking, and...with respect to ourselves, we can say that the more enlightened and informed we are about God's works, the more we will be disposed to find them excellent and in complete conformity with what we might have desired.”

“Now, as there is an infinity of possible universes in the Ideas of God, and as only one of them can exist, there must be a sufficient reason for God's choice, which determines him toward one rather than another. And this reason can be found only in the fitness, or the degrees of perfection, that these worlds contain, since each possible thing has the right to claim existence in proportion to the perfection it involves.”

“If we could sufficiently understand the order of the universe, we should find that it exceeds all the desires of the wisest men, and that it is impossible to make it better than it is, not only as a whole and in general but also for ourselves in particular, if we are attached, as we ought to be, to the Author of all, not only as to the architect and efficient cause of our being, but as to our master and to the final cause, which ought to be the whole aim of our will, and which can alone make our happiness.”

“If we were magically shrunk and put into someone's brain while she was thinking, we would see all the pumps, pistons, gears and levers working away and we would be able to describe the workings completely, in mechanical terms, thereby completely describing the thought processes of the brain. But that description would not contain any mention of thought! It would contain nothing but descriptions of pumps, pistons, levers!”

“Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.”

“Make me the master of education, and I will undertake to change the world.”

Copyright © Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo